The time for that change is much nearer now than it was then, and the shape which it will take, will probably be different in some important respects from Bishop de Lancey's ideas at that time.' But his foresight as to the coming change will continue on record. Another and still more important subject was also introduced first by him into General Convention -- the adoption of the Provincial System. Bishop Wiiite, indeed, had sketched out the plan long before, and he had taken it from the universal system of the Church in all ages and countries ; but Bishop de Lancey was the first to propose it, formally, to the Legislature of the Church. The time had not come ; and the Bishop wisely let it sleep thereafter ; but here, as before, the proof of his foresight as to the approaching and certain needs of the Church is written in the records of her institutions. Bishops of more brilliance in some departments, of more moving eloquence, of more sympathetic temperaments, of more personal popularity, of more rapid visible success, we may behold ; but a Bishop more

1 The change did not coma till about fifteen or sixteen years after Bishop do L.'a death, when the Seminary was totally reorgHnized as it now is.

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

sagacious, more steady, more true, in laying the foundations of the Church, like a wise master-builder, we never expect to see."

.John Peter De Lancey by will (dated 28th of January, 1823) devised his property in this town to Thomas James De Lancey, the only child of his deceased son Thomas James, and to his son William Heathcote De Lancey the Bishop of Western New York (except a portion of the western end of De Lancey's Neck which he had conveyed in his life, time to his deceased son Thomas James, who had devised the same to his only child Thomas James the younger).